Filmmakers Who Died in 2010

There are other filmmakers who died this past year.  But these people made cinema that means something to me.  Listed by year of birth.

Bill Littlejohn (1914 –2010) Animator.  Peanuts and Garfield specials.

Roy Ward Baker (1916-2010) Director. Don’t Bother to Knock (1952), A Night to Remember (1958), Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010) Producer. Barbarella (1968), Flash Gordon (1980), and Conan the Barbarian (1982).

Alexander Anderson (1920-2010) Co-creator of the Rocky and Bullwinkle characters.

Douglas Argent (1921-2010) TV Producer and Director.  Many shows, Fawlty Towers among them.

Art Clokey (1921-2010)  Stop-motion animator.  Created Gumby.

Blake Edwards (1922-2010)  Director.  Operation Petticoat (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Pink Panther (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964)

Arthur Penn (1922-2010) Director. Miracle Worker (1962), Bonnie & Clyde (1967), Little Big Man (1970).

Dede Allen (1923-2010)  Film editor.  The Hustler (1961), Bonnie & Clyde (1967), Serpico (1973), The Breakfast Club (1985).

Irvin Kershner (1923-2010) Director. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

Yoshinobu Nishizaki (1934-2010) Creator of the Space Battleship Yamato series.

John Jeffries, Sr. (1936-2010) Production and Set Designer.  The original Star Trek, JAG, Matlock.

Carl Macek (1951-2010)  Producer of English dubbed anime. First English dub of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro.

Sally Menke (1953-2010) Film editor.  Collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on all his films.

Corey Haim (1971-2010) Actor.  Lucas (1986), Lost Boys (1987),  License to Drive (1988).

Flame of Recca – disc 10

Well, this is the end of the series. The first part (before they go to tournament) was still super fun but the battles got in the way of the interaction between the team Hokage which is my favorite part.

Also, the anime ends with tons of unfinished subplots: Fuko did not solve the mystery of her full powers, and ‘s access to her ultimate powers, Tokiya never finds his sister’s killer much less avenge her.  The Kurei escapes, and his future is not told.

Most puzzling to me, how did they readjust to normal life after all their adventures?  I think it’s fair to say that they are adults now – and I can’t imagine how they would be content to be high school students.

Anyway, the final battle was satisfying and the team glomping Recca after they win was amusing.

Tiamat has good things to say about the manga and notes the problems with the anime version.  But I don’t know that I want to invest more time in the series.

Flame of Recca 7, 8, & 9

Quick notes on the episodes of discs 7,8, and 9 behind cut.

Flame of Recca, disc 6

For the first time since I started watching this series, the pre-fight posturing bored me.  Then again, that could be due to watching disc 7 first.  It made me impatient.

The leader of Team Ku,  Kukai, was dull.  He was dull as the saint and dull as his later incarnation.  His backstory was boring.  Bleh.

I liked Saicho.  I not only liked his personality but I liked that he recites poetry to build up his chi.  It’s difficult for me to think of a USA movie with poetry-reciting fighter, other than Aragorn in G. I. Jane.  And in reference to the poetry, the joke about Tokiya’s snobbish attitude made me laugh.

The best scene was when Yanagi realized that she’s a cipher in the storyline.  Her healing power has all but been dropped by the writers.  Nevertheless, Recca, perhaps mindful of potential nookie, attempts to bolster her flagging self-esteem.  It works because they go sparkle-vision for each other.

Ultimately, Recca plays with his fire-dragons and people get the hell knocked out of them.  Not surprising but very satisfying.

Moon Child (2003)

Gackt

When I was a child and a young teen, I avoided scary movies at all costs.  But when I started college, I began to watch horror movies on a limited basis.  That left me with a lot of unwatched horror movies.

Last Halloween, I attempted to watch all the best horror movies of the 70s and 80s.  The horror movies of the 70s (e.g., Jaws; Carrie; The Exorcist) were pretty good but I didn’t care for the slashers in the 80s (exceptions: Nightmare on Elm Street; Evil Dead).  I offended my friends by dismissing their favorite movies, so I won’t be discussing them here.  People are too sensitive about their slasher films.

HYDE

At any rate, this year I decided to watch classic movies and Asian horror films.  The classic movies have fallen by the wayside but I have watched some Asian horror movies.  I have watched Ringu and Ju-On but that’s about it. My comments on Whispering Corridors and Charisma came out of this effort.

I thought I’d take a break and watch Moon Child.  This movie features pop stars Gackt and Hyde in the lead roles.  I imagined the movies would be vehicle along the lines of Crossroads (saw trailer) or Glitter (saw one scene).  I expected a bunch of pretty vampires wafting their way through a lightweight story with musical interludes.  That’s not quite what Moon Child is.

There is a duet, of sorts, between the 2 leads.  It has got a vampire but that’s more of an affectation than condition of being.  The story, though wildly inconsistent, is meant to be serious.  I think.

Sho (Gackt) is an urchin who is defended by an ailing vampire.  Sho latches onto the vampire named Kei (Hyde) and he grows up to become a gangster.  Sho and Kei make a pretty couple and they gather a makeshift family around themselves.  Kwok (Yi-Chen), a mute Taiwanese woman, becomes a sort of love interest but she’s not that interesting.

Things then take a turn for the worse.

Perhaps if they had chosen a more mundane story, it might have been more effective.  The little bits such as the kidding at the lunch prepared by Kwok or while Kwon is patching them after a shootup, were actually quite nice.

Or when they smirk over the European delighted with his new tattoo in kanji that reads “Kitchen” instead of “Ninja.”  That was cute.

The most effective story-line was that of the strong friendship between Sho and Kei.  It could be seen to have romantic undercurrents.

I’m not a fan of either singer.  I didn’t know which character was played by which singer till the end of the movie, to be honest.  But I have to say that Gackt was fun to watch. His voice has an interesting quality and his eyes are rather strange, somehow.  I think it’s the eyeliner.

Moon Child could work for as a mockamon but I didn’t laugh myself silly† as I had expected to.

After the cut are links and spoilers a few things that puzzled me.          †and one part that did make me laugh.

Flame of Recca vol. 5

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(Recca will say something cocky. He will be reprimanded. He will then say something else cocky.)

Recca’s team moves from story mode to tournament mode. They are invited to Kurei’s Mortal Kombat. To no one’s surprise (except for Yanagi), they accept. Kurei is the evil fire-wielder whom Recca must defeat at some point.

Ganko (the cute little girl) introduces the team’s mascot, a fox named Kondo.
There is an amusing bit in which the team members offer their treasures as tribute so that they can enter the tournament. I have to say that Ganko’s offering was the most enticing of the four treasures offered. It also made Yanagi and Ganko part of the team, which I liked.

Tokiya’s fight against Daikoku was dull. I think the creators didn’t exactly know what to do with him, and he is much less entertaining than Recca, Fuko or Domon.

Domon’s battle, especially the first part was funny, funny stuff. At the beginning of the series, I disliked his character but he’s completely won me over. It’s the Jayne effect.

Fuko deserved better than to fight a lecher like Fujimaru. The subtitled version described her as a high school student, and thus should not be subjected to the crowd’s view. In the dubbed version, she is described as a virgin. I think her dignity was better served by the subtitled translation. However, she fought well and managed to unnerve her male team members – which I think they deserved.

Saicho, the origami fighter from team Ku was gentlemanly to Fuko – the only gentleman in the whole crowd as far as I could tell. His battle with the intemperate Recca should be interesting…

Flame of Recca Disc 4

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(The characters with big, starry eyes are not bad no matter how much they protest otherwise.)

Ganko appears to be a permanent character which makes me happy. She was wearing ponytails in this episode and she looked very cute.

Several episodes concerned the mystery of Recca’s origin and his destiny. Much of the story line was set in the Civil War era of Japan. It appears that a lot of noble sentiment and melodramatic declarations make up Recca’s heritage. Part of the story had all the characters (except Tokiya) swirly-eyed with emotion.

Now to the stuff I liked best.

Recca was very cute as a baby. Awww!

Yanagi prayed to a Jizo but when Domon mocked her, Tokiya and Recca threatened him with bodily harm.

At one point, Recca offhandedly beats up a villain.

There is an ass-groping of the wrong team member and some random punching. It’s puerile but it makes me grin.

Tokiya is mistaken for a girl and he realizes it. Wish that happened more often.

The following episode was all about training in the mountains during summer vacation. A fellow viewer wondered why they didn’t band together, taking their healer, to whale on train with each other all summer. I guess he was thinking of a ninja Valhalla. My guess is that the creators were saving the characters’ increased abilities so that there could be a reveal during battle.

I need to start rationing the disks. I don’t want to become surfeited with the series.

Flame of Recca (1997) disc 2

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The female characters will become inexplicably less than dressed every couple of episodes.

I am really enjoying this total shonen (boy) series. It’s got melodrama — goofy humor — comradery — sweet romance. And lots of battles.

Kagehoshi (the mysterious crazy woman) offers the rejected Fuko (the busty fighter) a madogu (magic weapon) of wind power. Fuko quickly gets the knack of using the weapon and challenges Recca again. This particular madogu turns its user into a seductress. Fuko gets purple-eyed and sends forth gale winds and double entendres. Domon (the muscles) indirectly declares his love for Fuko; Yanagi (the princess) faints a couple of times.

One of the things I love best about the series is how it undermines the characters’ dignity. For instance, Yanagi starts crying and snots all over Recca’s jacket. Recca takes on postures and expressions that would wow the Azumanga Daioh girls.

Recca accidentally sees a girl naked and has a nose bleed bad enough to smack his head against the pavement. The girl in question punches him, her boyfriend punches him, and then Yanagi yells at him. A disheveled Recca says, “You too, princess??!!!” Yanagi doesn’t punch him.

Yanagi is abducted by villains and Recca’s new team sets out to save her. Each character battles an opponent on a each floor of the stronghold. It feels like a platformer though I don’t point it out as a flaw.

Flame of Recca (1997) disc 1

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Hero Recca might appear ready to lose the fight but he will rise up to conquer his foes via his inextinguishable spirit and his sheer fire power.

Recca, an-ordinary-Japanese-schoolboy, is obsessed with ninja culture and his family traditionally makes fireworks.

I equate fireworks with noisy lights and ninja with silent concealment, so this character choice makes no sense to me. But then I’m not Japanese, and I enjoy the show too much to worry about petty details.

The series starts with a goofy battle between Recca and a good-hearted brute named Domon. Domon describes himself as the strongest high school student in history. Recca and Domon trade blows and insults. Recca wins handily with one of his few displays of wit rather than guts.

Later in the day, Recca discovers that he possesses the legendary ninja power of flame. He discovers this while defending a classmate and healer named Yanagi from a crazy woman named Kagehoshi.

Recca then declares that Yanagi is his princess and he is her ninja. One of their teachers laughs and says, “You say that with a straight face.” But Recca is sincere. He will protect his rather ordinary ‘princess’ at any cost. It’s lucky for her that he has made this vow because her safety is constantly in jeopardy at least up until disc 6.

Fuko, a busty classmate, is distraught that Recca has chosen to be the sweetheart ninja of the noncombatant Yanagi. She challenges both of them. When Fuko demands that Recca explain why he has pledged himself to Yanagi – Recca looks rather sweet here – he proclaims that he just wanted to.

300 (2006)

I thought, while watching this movie, the director must love Hero. Later I found out that cinematographer on this movie, Larry Fong, was also most wonderfully responsible for Hero. It also reminded me of Gladiator except that it was shorter. And because of Queen Gorgo (Lena Hedley).

The storyline is concentrated on one event, 300 hundred Spartans versus a horde of D&D monsters. Everything was spelled out so I wasn’t distracted from the content of the film. Guys hacking and slashing in not much clothes.

The Persian ‘god’ king sends his envoy to King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) of Sparta demanding submission. Spartans believe in strength and freedom above all else, and King Leo will not capitulate. Unfortunately, he’s caught within the strictures of custom from mustering the Spartan army.

He calls for volunteers.

SPOILERS